Workers in the Logan Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $17.80 in May 2014, about 22 percent below the nationwide average of $22.71, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Stanley W. Suchman noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were higher than their respective national averages in 1 of the 22 major occupational groups. Twenty groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages, including management; legal; and architecture and engineering.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 4 of the 22 occupational groups, including production; education, training, and library; and life, physical, and social science. Conversely, 12 groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations; food preparation and serving related; and healthcare practitioners and technical. (See table A and box note at end of release.)

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Logan had 7,610 jobs in production, accounting for 14.7 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.6-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $15.52, significantly below the national wage of $17.06.

Some of the largest detailed occupations within the production group included food batchmakers (720), team assemblers (710), and inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (600). Among the higher paying jobs were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers and machinists, with mean hourly wages of $23.84 and $20.76, respectively. Occupations at the lower end of the wage scale included bakers ($10.57). (Detailed occupational data for production are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/2014/may/oes_30860.htm .)

Location quotients allow us to explore the occupational make-up of a metropolitan area by comparing the composition of jobs in an area relative to the national average. (See table 1.) For example, a location quotient of 2.0 indicates that an occupation accounts for twice the share of employment in the area than it does nationally. In the Logan Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, food batchmakers were employed at 15.6 times the national rate in Logan, and electrical and electronic equipment assemblers, at 5.0 times the U.S. average. On the other hand, production workers helpers had a location quotient of 0.9 in Logan, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

These statistics are from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case, the Utah Department of Workforce Services.

Technical Note

The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey is a semiannual mail survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands are also surveyed, but their data are not included in the national estimates. OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Forms are mailed to approximately 200,000 sampled establishments in May and November each year. May 2014 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2014, November 2013, May 2013, November 2012, May 2012, and November 2011. The overall national response rate for the six panels is 74.3 percent based on establishments and 70.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The unweighted employment of sampled establishments across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57.1 percent of total national employment. (Response rates are slightly lower for these estimates due to the federal shutdown in October 2013.) The sample in the Logan Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,047 establishments with a response rate of 83 percent. For more information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.

The OES survey provides estimates of employment and hourly and annual wages for wage and salary workers in 22 major occupational groups and 821 detailed occupations for the nation, states, metropolitan statistical areas, metropolitan divisions, and nonmetropolitan areas. In addition, employment and wage estimates for 94 minor groups and 458 broad occupations are available in the national data. OES data by state and metropolitan/nonmetropolitan area are available from www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcst.htm and www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcma.htm, respectively.

The May 2014 OES estimates are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system and the 2012 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Information about the 2010 SOC is available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/soc and information about the 2012 NAICS is available at www.bls.gov/bls/naics.htm.

Area definitions

The substate area data published in this release reflect the standards and definitions established by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

The Logan, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area  includes Cache County, UT and Franklin County, ID.

Additional information

OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/mountain-plains. Answers to frequently asked questions about the OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed technical information about the OES survey is available in our Survey Methods and Reliability Statement on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/oes/2014/may/methods_statement.pdf.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request . Voice phone: 202-691-5200; Federal Relay Service: 800-877-8339.

Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation, Logan Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2014

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production Occupations	7,610	2.2	$15.52	$32,280
First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers	560	2.5	23.84	49,600
Electrical and Electronic Equipment Assemblers	390	5.0	12.45	25,900
Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters	120	3.9	15.98	33,240
Team Assemblers	710	1.7	12.06	25,080
Assemblers and Fabricators, All Other	(5)	(5)	9.51	19,780
Bakers	90	1.3	10.57	21,980
Food Batchmakers	720	15.6	16.82	34,980
Food Processing Workers, All Other	50	3.0	15.00	31,200
Computer-Controlled Machine Tool Operators, Metal and Plastic	50	1.0	15.14	31,490
Computer Numerically Controlled Machine Tool Programmers, Metal and Plastic	40	3.8	22.87	47,580
Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	100	1.4	17.12	35,610
Machinists	340	2.3	20.76	43,180
Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	240	4.9	11.90	24,750
Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers	170	1.2	16.88	35,110
Prepress Technicians and Workers	40	3.1	18.70	38,890
Printing Press Operators	(5)	(5)	18.56	38,610
Print Binding and Finishing Workers	80	4.3	14.48	30,120
Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Workers	(5)	(5)	8.60	17,890
Sewing Machine Operators	60	1.1	10.10	21,000
Cabinetmakers and Bench Carpenters	80	2.4	12.59	26,200
Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators	50	1.1	19.88	41,350
Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders	110	2.4	17.43	36,250
Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders	100	4.0	14.98	31,150
Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers	600	3.2	14.64	30,450
Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders	560	3.9	14.26	29,660
Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders	70	2.0	13.10	27,250
Molders, Shapers, and Casters, Except Metal and Plastic	70	5.4	15.84	32,950
Helpers--Production Workers	140	0.9	11.59	24,110
Production Workers, All Other	(5)	(5)	12.20	25,370
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in Logan, UT-ID, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_30860.htm. (2) Estimates for detailed occupations do not sum to the totals because the totals include occupations not shown separately. Estimates do not include self-employed workers. (3) The location quotient is the ratio of the area concentration of occupational employment to the national average concentration. A location quotient greater than one indicates the occupation has a higher share of employment than average, and a location quotient less than one indicates the occupation is less prevalent in the area than average. (4) Annual wages have been calculated by multiplying the hourly mean wage by a ‘year-round, full-time’ hours figure of 2,080 hours; for those occupations where there is not an hourly mean wage published, the annual wage has been directly calculated from the reported survey data. (5) Estimate not released.